The minor law books: The minor law books (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1889)

XIII, 42.

INHERITANCE.

199


*38. Giving, receiving, cattle, food, houses, fields,
and servants must be regarded as separate among
divided brothers, and so must cooking, religious
duties, income, and expenditure (be kept separate
for each of them).
* 39. (The acts of) giving evidence, of becoming a
surety, of giving, and of taking, may be mutually
performed by divided brothers, but not by unsepa-
rated ones.
*40. If (brothers or others) should transact such
matters as these publicly with their co-heirs, they
may be presumed to be separate in affairs, even
though no written record (of the partition) be in
existence.
*41. Those brothers who for ten years continue
to live separate in point of religious duties and
business transactions, should be regarded as separate;
that is a settled rule.
*42. When a number of persons, the descendants
of one man, are separate in point of (the performance
of) religious duties, business transactions, and work-

38. ‘ Giving and receiving,’without consulting each other. Pur-
chase of ‘ cattle ’ and the like. See Colebrooke’s Digest, V, 6, 380.
The upshot of a long discussion of this text by Gagannatha is this,
that none of the acts mentioned here may be regarded as conclusive
evidence by itself, a great deal of collective evidence of all sorts
having to be adduced in each case. See Colebrooke’s Digest, V,
6. 387.
39. Yagraavalkya II, 52.
41. The term ‘brothers’ is here used to denote coparceners
generally. Smrz'ti^andrika XVI, 14. The Sarasvativilasa (§ 812,
Foulkes) contests the correctness of this interpretation. The
Nepalese MS. does not give this paragraph, and it is elsewhere
attributed to Bn'haspati.
42, 43. ‘ Religious duties,’ prescribed observances, such as the
five great sacrifices (Mahaya^/zas). ‘Business transactions,’ such as